The November 2019 issue of UNCUT magazine had a cover story about Wilco. It included a 17 track CD of bands covering Wilco (called WILcovered or WILCOvered). I really enjoyed this collection and knew most of the artists on it already, so I’m going through the songs one at a time.

This is a pretty standard cover of this song with Courtney Barnett on acoustic guitar with no accompaniment.. Her voice sounds great and it’s fun to hear her sing this in her Australian accent. I definitely miss the wonderful bass line in the song, but her version is lovely.

[READ: February 2, 2020] Space Battle Lunchtime Volume 2

The book opens with Peony in a cell. The disembodied voice shows that she signed a contract to be on Cannibal Coliseum. It is signed Peggy, ha. They tell her she’ll be chopping or being chopped in an hour.

She says that she can’t cut up and cook someone. The voice says “It’s called Can-nibal Coliseum not Can’t-ibal…”

Peony realizes the she has her phone so she turns it on and sees NO BARS. You’re in space, what did you expect.

Back at the Space Battle Lunchtime set, it is revealed that Peony left a note–she forfeited. But the cameraman says that doesn’t sound like her. Neptunia says that Peony bailed on their date as well. And, what a surprise, Chef Melonhead has offered to fill in for the missing Peony.

Neptunia and the camera guy look at footage of the loading doc and see that Peony was taken by a Cannibal Coliseum van.

Back on the Cannibal set, Peony meets Ariella Magicorn an (over the top adorable) unicorn in a sweet dress with big eyes. She is very nice until she says “its a pleasure to MEAT you … because I’m going to murder you! Ha Ha Ha”

Then we meet the other contestants: Chef Magicorn, Chef Glob Cloud; Chef Meatabax (“it’s a good opportunity t make a comeback”) and Chef Peony.

The battle ensues. It’s a blur of chefs and food parts–fortunately we don’t have to discern anything specific. Magicorn corners Peony and just as things seem dire, Neptunia crashed into the Cannibal Coliseum set with the camera dude’s van. Neptunia kicks Magicorn in the head and then gives Peony a huge kiss.

There’s some very funny battle/escape scenes and then back on the SBL set, Neptunia punches out Melonhead which gets her disqualified. (I wondered how they were going to have Peony battle Neptunia. Neptunia tells Peony to kick his butt for her. Peony says she’ll try to win and Neptunia says “You’ve already won my hearts* *Neptunia has 3 hearts and a backup fourth in storage on the moon.” Then says seriously though please win the competition.

The final competition is in zero gravity. Each chef does a decent job, but when there s a zero gravity malfunction, Peony must choose–victory or saving her enemy as he plummets. The ending is quite surprising. And the epilogue is very satisfying

There’s some bonus content which is mostly three panel comics with names like “Knife Puns” and a nice follow up to the “can’t-ibal” joke.

The final cartoon shows peony returning to earth. Wonder if she’s back for good? I guess we’ll never know.

More bonus features include “What If” scenarios. Like “Space Battle Lunchtime, BUT CATS!”

There’s also a recipe for chocolate cupcakes at the end.

This was a fun, silly story that I enjoyed quite a lot. I wonder what else Reiss has done.